Why we are living in the golden age of NFL kicking

LINED UP BEYOND the midfield star logo at AT&T Stadium for a field goal attempt, Dallas Cowboys punter Bryan Anger corralled the football from long-snapper Trent Sieg. With his standard three-step approach, kicker Brandon Aubrey drilled it as Anger held it, and the ball sailed down the field, almost evenly splitting the uprights.

But there was nothing standard about Aubrey’s kick — at least it didn’t used to be standard. With a swing of his leg, Aubrey hit a 65-yard field goal midway through the first quarter in the Cowboys’ Week 3 game against the Baltimore Ravens, setting a franchise record in the process.

Aubrey’s long-range field goal was one of a record number of deep field goals made by NFL kickers this season. Through eight weeks, league kickers have converted 73.6% of field goals attempted of 50 or more yards, besting the previous high of 71.6% through eight weeks of the 2022 season. And the average distance of field goal attempts this season (40.2 yards) is the longest average since at least 2000.

“It’s the evolution of the craft,” said Brian Egan, Aubrey’s private kicking coach. “There’s more skill-specific coaches. The trainers are getting better, the workouts are getting better. Everything that’s going into it now, kids are starting to train younger. I just think you’re seeing the evolution on full display right now, where it’s come in the last 10, 15 years to where it is now.”

That Aubrey had the opportunity to attempt a 65-yarder — and in the middle of the first quarter, no less — is a testament to the trust coaches have in their kickers, longtime Pittsburgh Steelers kicker Chris Boswell told ESPN. And it’s one of the many reasons the NFL is in its golden era of kicking.

Through eight weeks, NFL teams have attempted 125 field goals of at least 50 yards, the most through eight weeks of a season since 2000.

Not only are kickers getting more opportunities to attempt long field goals, but the players and their position coaches also point to early position specialization, synergy in the place-kicking battery and several rule changes as major factors in the 2024 field goal-apalooza.

“It’s good to see the kickers throughout the league are getting the praise of that,” Boswell said. “It’s not just the downfall like kickers are known for, where we’re talked about for misses more than makes.”

KICKERS ARE MORE accurate than they’ve been in decades — and with historic ranges — but it’s not because they weren’t previously able to hit long-range field goals.

Rather, Boswell said, coaches are finally trusting them in moments where analytics might’ve told them to punt the ball and play field position.

“Back in the day, my first couple years here, if it was over 53, it was ‘Let’s play a defensive game’ and stuff like that,” said Boswell, who entered the league in 2015. “So I just think that as the years have progressed, coaches are trusting the kicker’s legs more. We’ve always been able to do it just now. Finally, we’re getting able to showcase that.”

This season, Boswell has converted 23 of 24 field goal attempts, including six of seven from at least 50 yards, already matching his total of attempts and long-range field goal makes from last season. In a decade with the Steelers, Boswell has connected on 36 of 44 field goal attempts of 50 yards and beyond.

It’s that body of work, coupled with the intentionally watchful eyes of coach Mike Tomlin, that’s helped lead to his hot start.

“It goes back to coaches watching us in practice — that we attempt them in practice,” Boswell said. “We warm up from 60 in practice, we hit with a team from 60 in practice. So the more he sees that, the more confident he’s willing to go out.

“It’s definitely a trust that has to be earned, and you have to be watched repeatedly before he just gives you the nod to go out there in the middle of the first half for a 65-yarder.”

Though the attempt wasn’t quite as long as Aubrey’s, on the biggest stage in Super Bowl LVIII, the San Francisco 49ers trotted kicker Jake Moody out in the middle of the first half to attempt his own long-range field goal. Moody drilled the 55-yard attempt to hold the record for longest made field goal in the Super Bowl for a quarter until Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker topped him with a 57-yarder in the third.

Las Vegas Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson, who made a career-high 11 field goals of at least 50 yards on 13 attempts in 2022, has also felt his coaches’ trust. In 2018, Carlson’s first year in the league, he made all three of his long-range field goal attempts. The next year, though, he missed his only two attempts. Since then, his volume of deep attempts — and makes — has increased, and so far this season, he’s made four of five attempts from beyond 50 yards.

“At the end of the day there’s going to be a limit on the range at some point, but it’s the accuracy and our team’s more willing to kick these field goals now,” Carlson said. “I mean guys have always been able to kick 50-, 60-yarders, but it’s like, ‘how often are you making them? What percentage is a coach willing to risk a 60-yarder?'”

THE EXPLANATION FOR the NFL’s kicking renaissance isn’t a mystery to longtime special teams guru Danny Smith.

“The length hasn’t changed,” said Smith, who’s spent the past 13 seasons coaching the Steelers’ special teams unit. “The field hasn’t changed. So what has changed? The quality of the kicker. The quality of the operation. They spend a lot of time together. They take very much pride in their craft and they work their butts off on it.

“All these snappers’, all these holders’, all these kickers’ numbers are up, to their credit, and it’s not a puzzling question to me. … These guys are special, man, and they deserve a lot of credit throughout this league as specialists.”

Once an afterthought for backup quarterbacks, holder duties started to be reassigned to punters early in the 2010s as an emphasis on special teams grew and specialists started to practice together. Replacing the backup quarterback with the punter kept the team from having to pull the quarterback away from other parts of practice.

It made sense for two reasons: The kicking specialists already spent the most time together, and punters were familiar with catching snaps from the long-snapper prior to kicking it away.

The extra practice reps between the punter, kicker and long-snapper also reduced the possibility of costly in-game holding snafus — remember Tony Romo and the 2006 NFC wild-card round?

For Washington Commanders kicker Austin Seibert, having longtime punter Tress Way, who’s earned two Pro Bowls since joining the franchise in 2014, hold his kicks made his baptism by fire this season a seamless transition.

“I told Tress, ‘You know what to do. Dude, you’ve been doing this a long time, so I trust you,'” Seibert said.

Initially selected by the Cleveland Browns in the fifth round of the 2019 draft, Seibert bounced around the league after inconsistency led the Browns to cut him one game into his second season. But nearly a year after his last in-game field goal attempt, Seibert was signed by the Commanders and days later nailed 7 of 7 field goal attempts in the Commanders’ 21-18 Week 2 win against the Giants. So far this season, Seibert has missed two kicks in 25 attempts, including a 51-yarder in the fourth quarter of Washington’s improbable win against the Bears on Sunday. Prior to that miss, though, Seibert made four field goals, accounting for all of Washington’s points outside of the game-winning Hail Mary.

“If it’s a little windy out, maybe Tress will turn the laces a little bit for me,” Seibert said. “[I tell him], ‘Cool. Let’s do it.’ It can help you out when it comes to making kicks.”

Like Aubrey with his 65-yarder, Cameron Dicker’s long-range field goals also inked his name in the annals of his franchise’s history.

Dicker tied the Los Angeles Chargers‘ team record — and set a personal best — with a 59-yarder in the second quarter of the Chargers’ Week 7 loss to the Cardinals.

Dicker went on to score all 15 of the Chargers’ points on field goals of 50, 28, 47 and 40 yards. This season, Dicker is 17-of-18, with his lone miss coming on a 55-yard attempt against the Chiefs in Week 4.

“The specialization of the holding has really helped,” Dicker said. “It just makes life easier for kickers. You don’t have to think. The punter has more time to practice the hold than a backup quarterback all day long. They’ve got other things to worry about, more important things than making sure that, ‘Hey, is this the right distance for me to catch it?'”

ANOTHER ELEMENT CONTRIBUTING to increases in accuracy and range, Seibert said, is the longer extra points. Moved from 20 to 33 yards in 2015, extra point makes are no longer forgone conclusions.

And that’s a good thing.

The longer extra points are something like quality control checks for kickers during the game, Seibert said.

“It’s not a gimme anymore,” Seibert said. “You’ve got to rely on that technique and be locked in more. … If I hit an extra point, and all my extra points throughout the game are going straight down the middle, it just gives me more confidence that I’m hitting a straight ball, and I can rely on that.

“Whereas, too, you’ll have games where you’ll see guys, whether they don’t hit a great ball and you’re like, ‘Oh, okay, that one moved a little bit. Check up on this a little bit and try and fix that for the next one.'”

Other kickers and coaches suggested the dynamic kickoff, a rule for the 2024 season, could be positively impacting field goal attempts because some teams are opting to have their kickers place the ball in the 20-yard landing zone to force a return instead of drilling the obligatory touchback.

“We don’t have the same 10-yard approach and smash the ball and all that mindset anymore.” Boswell said. “I mean, if you kick it three yards deep and they return it, cool. If they don’t, cool. Some teams are still smashing, so they’re still going to have the wear and tear. It takes a lot off your leg throughout the week, and so maybe game day you’re a lot more fresh if you’re one of the teams that aren’t just blasting kickoffs day after day.”

SINCE STARTING HIS own venture working with kickers in the Dallas area in 2016, Egan has seen his clients get younger and younger.

Now, his youngest kicker is 10 years old.

Egan supposes the youth movement is for a couple reasons: It’s a safer position in a sport that’s rife with concussion concerns, kickers are getting bigger contracts and, quite simply, kicking is cool.

“Even when I was growing up, kicking was never kind of the cool thing to do,” Egan said. “Now it’s sort of trending the other way a little bit, and especially some of these parents are concerned with their younger kids playing football and stuff, but if they’re a soccer player they go, ‘Hey, well you can be the kicker.’ So you’re starting to see that a lot more often now.”

Call it the Justin Tucker effect.

Tucker, the Ravens’ longtime kicker, has helped popularize the position as a prolific long-range kicker during his 13 years in the league. Tucker picked up the kicking mantle after three-time All-Pro and four-time Super Bowl champion Adam Vinatieri retired in 2021 following 24 seasons and an NFL record 599 career field goals split between stellar stints with the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts. A seven-time Pro Bowler who entered the league in 2012, Tucker made all 10 of his attempts beyond 50 yards in 2016, and he holds the NFL record for longest field goal with a 66-yarder in 2021. With the rise in social media, impressive kicking moments are spreading across the internet in viral videos.

“It seems like it’s turning,” Boswell said of the attitude toward kickers. “I don’t want to speak too soon, I don’t want to jinx anything, but I mean it’s good to see. Obviously having Pat McAfee as a punter in the league for a long time with Vinatieri, it’s good to see [McAfee] highlighting college long balls, NFL long balls, stuff like that. So it’s more people have eyes on it nowadays than what they had in the past.”

Though Tucker downplayed the effect that he’s had on the position, he said that he used to ask Vinatieri for advice, and now he has kickers at all levels approach him for the same thing. Once among the few who could consistently nail 50-yarders, Tucker is happy to see the long-range attempts becoming more commonplace.

“If you got a guy with a leg that can get it there, just let it rip and see what happens,” Tucker said. “I love that teams are launching the ball from the logo, all over the place. I think it’s a blast. I think it’s great for the game. It’s fun, it’s entertaining for the fans, and then it’s an opportunity for world-class athletes to showcase their abilities.

“Just like you want to see Lamar Jackson throwing and running all over the field, and I think every fan that likes seeing that, loves to see kicks from the other side of midfield. It’s awesome to watch.”

Todd Archer, D.J. Bien-Aime, Paul Gutierrez, Jamison Hensley, John Keim, Kris Rhim and Adam Teicher contributed to this story.

Source: www.espn.com